Open Date with a Droid Factory

[Juniper]

Her droid was dead.

Dead dead. Not just 'empty battery' or a fried memory board, absolutely 100% dead. Gone to the great electronic essence that surrounded everything... or whatever. Nara knew better than to be too sentimental about droids but this one in particular got to her. 3-B had been her companion since she was a kid. She'd had him for nearly a decade. From the vents and passageways of Nar Shaddaa, to the Jedi Temple, all through her training and afterwards. Her best friend. Sometimes, her only friend. Now he was gone.

Time to make a new one.

She'd heard word through some of her contacts about an old droid factory, long abandoned. They'd made all sorts of them there, the company desperately trying to find some model that'd catch on. Unfortunately, they hadn't been a Duwani or a Blackwall, so they'd collapsed and been left in the dustbin of history. And Nara Allam was very, very good at cobbling new things out of dustbins.

The fence hadn't been a problem. It'd been barely holding itself together anyway, especially when faced with a former Jedi. She stood before the factory, checking out the graffiti covered walls. Looked like plenty of the locals had availed themselves of the place but she knew, deeper inside, there was a core section that'd been untouched.

I want those BD plans.

 

[Hal Mikko]

Hal Mikko was good with his hands. Always had been.

It had often been a blessing and a curse in his life. As a poor kid growing up on Taris, his affinity for repairing things intuitively was often what kept his father's swoop repair shop from going under when the old man got stuck, much to the chagrin of Mr. Mikko. Sometimes Hal wondered how his father's business managed after he'd joined the Order... not that he missed performing maintenance on repulsorlift engines. Back then, his mechanical aptitude had been a blessing.

Yet those same skills were also the reason he'd been assigned the most grueling, technically complex tasks as a Syndicate slave, such as repairing the machines used to synthesize glitterstim or the (sometimes still-active) mining drills. It hardly mattered how much natural talent he had anyways - he'd been kept in shackles the whole time, even during the more precise operations, as his captors knew better than to unleash a trained Force sensitive in an enclosed environment.

And as a Jedi Knight... being dexterous had its perks. While most Jedi were naturally gifted mechanics, thanks to the Force, Hal had the aptitude and experience to repair his own starship himself, adding his own little modifications along the way. He'd do the same for Em-One, his trusty droid sidekick, and would even tinker with the outer shell of his lightsaber, adding aesthetic customizations and new materials to the hilt as the years went by.

Now though, Hal found himself in an abandoned factory with a half-destroyed thruster component designed for Imperial TIEs over a century ago placed on a nearby workbench. The Jedi had set himself up with a series of tools, and a half-drank bottle of beer set aside just to make the process go by slightly faster, and was hard at work attempting to restore the device. Em-One was in a nearby corner broadcasting a holostream of music, which echoed throughout the abandoned facility's walls.

Hal made no attempt to hide his presence in the Force - after all, why would he have needed to? His main concern was that some local authorities would find him, a far cry from pirates and Sith. If any trouble arose, he was sure he could talk his way out of things... and his lightsaber was sheathed at his hip if he couldn't.

"Em-One, turn down the volume a bit and pass me that hydrospanner!" Hal yelled out over the sound of his tools at work. "And keep an eye out for anyone headin' over here!" He reached out a hand to catch the tool that Em-One had thrown, but after a few moments, the droid still hadn't passed him anything, and even more concerning was that he'd killed the music. The Knight turned around from his work cautiously, and his hand instinctively dropped down to his waist. "You said you heard a noise by the fence?" He whispered, to which the droid confirmed in hushed Binary. Hal scowled. "That means they would've heard us by now too. I'll go check it out - you just stay close to me buddy alright?"

As Em-One clambered up onto the Knight's shoulder, Hal slowly made his way from his little workshop and out into the light.

@Charndley

 

[Juniper]

As Nara approached the walls, the dead ground crunching gently beneath her boots, she was sure she could hear something.

What kinda lame music is that?

Wait.. why is there music here?

Her mind instantly went to something negative: a gang. Made sense to her. Who else would be occupying an old, abandoned factory and blaring music out without a care. Probably some scavenger gang, stripping parts from stolen speeders and shuttles. Potentially dangerous but... trained Jedi, no match.

There was a way in, but it was shuttered. And by the looks of the rust on it, getting that open woulda alerted people about ten sectors away. No way. Instead, she looked up above it, seeing a broken window. Smashed imperfectly, a record of petty vandalism. Perfect.

Taking a couple of steps back, Nara ran towards it. Breathing in deep and summoning her focus, she jumped. Through the Force, she propelled herself up and somersaulted through the broken window, landing in the darkness inside with a soft squeak and a small spiral of dust. A small shard of glass fell from the window, hitting the floor with a gentle tink as Nara reached for a glowstick. Snapping it, the factory floor came alive in a pale blue.

Already, she saw what looked like a half assembled BD chassis.

Yes. Perfect. I'm in the right place. If only there wasn't someone else here.

@Ginger

 

[Hal Mikko]

Hal stepped out and found... nothing. Visually at least. He could've sworn the fence was swaying, but that could've been the wind.

"Have you been overcharging your batteries again Em-One?" He jokingly called out to his companion, who whistled out its indigence in Binary. Hal shrugged, taking one last look at the area outside the factory for any perceptible sign of intrusion before he turned around to go back inside. "No one's here. If there was, you probably scared them off with that shitty music of yours. Never letting you touch the radio again lil buddy."

But as he took that first step, Hal heard the slightest tink as his foot touched the ground. He lifted his boot instinctively, thinking that he crushed an important component or something like that, but there was nothing there. If anything, it sounded like the noise came from somewhere else in the factory, and if that wasn't enough, there was a feeling on the borders of his mind. Not quite a presence in the Force - that would've been a dead giveaway that he wasn't alone - but a feeling nonetheless. One of those Force feelings Jedi tended to get beyond their normal sense of intuition. And it was telling him that there was someone else in the factory, likely someone who didn't want to be caught.

Though the Jedi couldn't place the sound, Em-One's photoreceptor jolted up towards the ceiling the moment the droid detected the sound. The human body could only be so receptive to different sounds, even with the Force, but the scout droid was finely tuned in locating specific wavelengths of light and sound. Hal followed its line of vision up towards the ceiling and put a finger on his lips to silence the droid before it made any more noise. As an extra precaution, he quickly masked his presence in the Force - a trick a fellow Jedi Knight had taught him years ago.

Hal wasn't sure who the intruder was, but it was obvious now that he wasn't alone... and whoever they were, they didn't want to be caught. Fascinating. Unfortunately for them, that was enough to pique the Jedi's interest. "Play your music again," Hal whispered towards the droid, quietly enough so that only they could hear it, "I'm gonna go check it out." And as the droid continued playing its lackluster music, Hal stepped outside once again, this time so that he could view the factory from the outside.

And almost immediately he noticed a pale blue light emanating out from a broken window.

@Charndley